Connellsville council considering options for Memorial Day parade
Jim Downey | 无毛视频-Standard
Every Memorial Day, Connellsville honors its veterans with a parade and service, but amidst a major bridge rehabilitation that has rerouted traffic and caused a number of problems, city officials are wondering if a parade this year is the best idea.
Last week, city council opted to table granting permission to sponsor Connellsville Veterans Commission’s parade. At the very least, officials said, council members would need to consider limiting its size due to a number of factors related to the Crawford Avenue (McCray Robb Memorial Bridge) bridge project.
“I think it’s going to be a mess,” said council member Carol Tiberio.
According to the city, the proposed lineup would begin at 9:30 a.m. on May 27, at the corner of South 1st and 3rd streets with the parade set to begin at 10 a.m. moving north on 3rd Street to Yough River Park, where the veteran’s service would take place.
Council member Bob Topper agreed that holding the annual event could be difficult. He is also worried that there won’t be enough parking spaces for the people who would come watch the parade.
Police Chief Bill Hammerle is also concerned.
Hammerle said perhaps organizers could limit how many invitations to participate in the parade go out, such as the number of fire departments involved, and ask that they only bring one vehicle instead of their whole fleet.
“Everybody is right. It’s going to be congested, very congested,” said Vern Ohler, city clerk. “If they could limit who’s in there…do that and we could have the parade.
Ohler said New Haven Hose Co. has held its Halloween parade for 115 years in a row, and he’s sure they will be asking to have it again in October, so the city must be fair when considering these requests.
Via email, Thomas McFadden, the parade’s coordinator, said he received approval for the parade last week and was preparing invitations to be sent out.
But Ohler said that the city has communicated concerns to the committee, and to his knowledge, council has yet to agree on a plan to move forward with the parade.
If they can come to an agreement, council could vote on the approval via email and ratify it at the next council meeting. That action would be permitted since it doesn’t involve an expenditure of city funds, according to solicitor Tim Witt.